after spending a month in the mountains of Haiti, we have moved to the coast of the Dominican Republic. Although its only a 4hour drive across the border it feels a lot different. Less people, less traffic, less Haitians, and more mosquitoes. The place we are staying is a concrete building with open rooms and an unfinished upstairs. Living here is a lot like camping. Every night we set up out beds in random places of the house, with mosquito nets and a lot of people sleep outside and pray it doesn’t rain. I learnt my lesson not to sleep outside when we were woken up at 4am to pouring rain and everyone running inside. Yes, now my bed consists of 2 mattress’s two mosquito nets under the kitchen table with two other girls. Like I said, a lot like camping. On the other hand, we are blessed with plenty of running water and flushing toilets. We even have a pool in the back. The beach is a two minute walk away, and it reminds me of a deserted resort beach. There are lots of dogs and quite a bit of garbage, but this whole town is full of potential. Unlike Haiti, there are a few American stores and places to eat, one of which is Yogen Fruz (frozen yoghurt). The food is amazing here at the base too; we have cooks which the team helps to make each meal, and we are blessed with fruit and veggies everyday. Two teams spend the day out in the town doing ministry and one team stay’s back to prepare meals and work around the base. For the first week our team went to a couple of schools and shared testimonies and drama’s with the children. It’s difficult adjusting to speaking Spanish now instead of Haitian Creole. I find it ironic that for 4 years I was studying Spanish and the last 9 months trying to learn Creole have wiped that completely from my vocabulary. It’s fun trying to remember how to say things and ask questions. Today was our first day of church here, and starts our week here at the base. The base leaders have a wonderful vision for this base to be a place for teams to stay, missionaries to find rest, and a place to offer more training. This is the reason that our teams are spending so much time here. We get the chance to be a small part of the foundation and pioneering of this base, which is very exciting. Although, last week we had one day here at the base working, and we found a spider the size of my hand in one of the rooms.. so I’m a bit afraid of what we might find here.
With 3 short weeks of outreach left I can’t help but think about the fact that I’ll be back in Red Deer in a month. This past year has been crazy and non-stop learning,working, traveling, and being stretched out of my comfort zone. I’ve seen and experienced more things then I even thought was possible. I’m constantly asking if this is really my life and I’m so incredibly grateful for all of the people I have shared this time with. If I had to think of one, the motto for my life would probably be something along the lines of “be flexible” “laugh so that you don’t cry” “it’s not going to look how you thought” or “don’t ask questions”. I can definitely say there was never a dull moment and although a lot of my year was challenging, I’m really going to miss living this way.
